There are several documents on the prior art concerning the industrialization of building structures, including prefabrication and optimization of construction processes.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,299,191A discloses a method for sequential construction of works with many spans. Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,074 discloses a method for constructing prefabricated bridges. Documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,073,115 and 3,989,218A reveal methods to strengthen the construction by successive advances.
Documents DE-B-1101477 and GB2073296A disclose systems for controlling or reducing deformations of structures made in situ, and document PTE1639203 presents a system for constructing structures in situ.
Several prior art elements can also be found in Puentes I, II, III, by Javier Manterola, Prestressed Concrete Bridges, by Christian Menn, or Construction and design of prestressed concrete segmental bridges, by Jean Muller and Walter Poldony, among others.
In the methods of building structures with in situ concreting, in order to increase the industrialization of the process, it is possible to observe the partial pre-assembling of the steel reinforcement before being placed on the formwork as this process has been in common use for many years. However, in this process, the operations of assembling the steel reinforcement are not comprehensive and do not ensure the exact final geometry of the prefabricated elements. This last aspect is of great importance because it means that after placing portions of reinforcement elements (steel reinforcements) in the final position in the structure to be constructed, it is still necessary to reposition these steel reinforcements in the final position and mount the respective moulds; these activities have an important impact on the production cycles.
Additionally, the transport and handling of these pre-assembled steel reinforcement systems become increasingly complex with the increase in size of the prefabricated modules and, therefore, there are functional limitations to pre-assembled steel reinforcement systems of great size, or to pre-assembled steel reinforcement systems that include, for example, horizontal elements of some size. The prefabrication of pre-assembled steel reinforcement systems without relevant need for subsequent handling is reduced to elements whose smaller size in the plant view is around a few dozen centimeters.
In short, the in situ concreting processes have the advantages of requiring less means of transport and lifting, less means of support and less logistic means in the facilities and may, in some cases, lead to further optimization of materials, but they are less industrialized and require more manpower at the works front line (sometimes off shore) and could lead to extended construction deadlines. The traditional prefabrication processes are fairly industrialized, with significant reduction of construction deadlines, with more control in construction site fabrication, with a very significant reduction of work at the works front line (sometimes off shore). However, they have some disadvantages, in particular because they require load transport and lifting systems that are very powerful and expensive, as well as requiring additional resources and logistics means at the facilities and not ensuring the perfect continuity between all the structural elements, which may not allow for, in some cases, the most appropriate optimization of the material quantities or, according to some authors, may not ensure the best seismic performance (where this is relevant).
The construction process shown in the present invention may be a solution of high potential, an alternative to the precast segmental construction method, and that minimizes the main limitations or adversities of this method in accordance with the state of the art.